- Welcome back, we have a great subject for you today.
I get a lot of comments on it,
and that's hip turn vs. hip slide in the golf swing.
Which is right for you?
I'm Adam Bazalgette,
a three time PGA Teacher of the Year Award winner,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Let's see if we can tackle this subject.
(dramatic electronic music)
(golf club swinging)
Well, hip motion, should it be slide?
Should it be turn?
Is it a combination?
I'll show you what I think
and I'll show you what I think is right for you
and I'll give you a drill towards the end of the video
that I know you can customize
to get the right kind of mixture
to help you hit the ball better,
I think you'll like it.
I'm the founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
If you go to scratchgolfacademy.com
we've got a complete collection of videos there,
I hope you'll consider that.
Okay, let's get started.
(golf club swinging)
You know, I'm often surprised to talk to golfers,
seasoned golfers, golfers that have played a long, long time
and they'll tell me in a comment or something
they think the hips should only turn in the down swing,
that they shouldn't slide.
They should, they should bump quite a bit.
You look at great golfers,
they all bump their hips to some extent,
some of them quite a bit
and certainly that is combined with some turn.
We'll look at that here
with a few great players just briefly,
and then we're gonna see how
you can apply the right amount
to fix whatever your problems are.
So, Freddie Couples on the left,
Davis Love on the right,
let's see how they do it.
We'll stop Fred at the top,
and lets take Davis up there,
we'll put a little marker on his left hip as well.
And as you'll see, they're somewhat different,
Fred has a large bump, a big shove
towards the target with his lower body.
Davis, more of a rotary look,
less of a bump towards the target there.
Obviously both phenomenal players.
Now, I would say,
a more middle of the road look,
let's say Justin Rose.
Middle of the road great look.
And, if you look at the amount
of bump he gets in his hip
it's something in-between those guys.
The general reference would be that your hip
which would be about over your ankle,
that would be your most standard look there coming down.
Okay, why do they do it differently then?
Why aren't they all doing it the same?
Well, the fact is, everybody's a unique individual,
they don't all have the same athletic instincts,
they don't all have the same bodies.
Some players are a lot more flexible
and lower body oriented than other players.
The key though,
is you've gotta get the club moving correctly
and that leads me to my second point,
they do it differently partially
because it gets them from whatever backswing they're in
into a good slot.
Let's have a look from this angle.
So, Freddie Couples, we looked at him there.
He has a very upright backswing
something way up in here.
He needs the the hip slide
because he's gotta drop that thing in.
Hip slide will help you drop it into the inside
and shallow out the downswing,
so that works well for him.
An example perhaps, Arnold Palmer might be
of a golfer set up a little bit close,
took the club a pretty far to the inside.
He has to get the club from over here
back in front of him this way.
So, he was a little bit more rotary,
a little bit less lateral,
and so on, and so on.
The principal though, is the more you bump and slide,
assuming your head stays steady,
the more the club drops down and in,
the more rotary you are,
the more around and on top of it
you'll tend to get the club
and hit down on the ball a little bit more.
Alright, I feel that this is just a terrific drill,
it's easy equipment to get a hold of,
it's just an alignment rod,
what I've done is cut this one in half,
I prefer it that way,
and I've just stuck it through the belt loops
in the front of my pants
and mostly sticking out the front side.
I don't want it sticking out the back so much
and the beauty of this thing,
you can customize it easily
to sort out whatever problem you have.
So, in this case, we're gonna look at example number one.
Let's suppose we're gonna be the golfer
that slides the hips more,
creates more of this sort of drive,
the kind that needs to shallow the club.
Again, if you're the sort of golfer
that doesn't drive it very well,
if you pull it and slice it,
those sort of problems,
typically it means you're coming to steeply
and across the target line,
that's most people by the way.
You need more of this bump,
and as you bump, this end should get higher sooner.
The more you do that, the more it tilts
and it shallows out the bottom of the arc.
So, stick the belt loop in there,
do it with practice swings initially
and just practice feeling
that you make that front end point up
as soon as you can.
You can peripherally see it and as you do it
just get the feeling that you're then
brushing the ground underneath it.
Very important, whenever you work
with something with the hips such as this,
that you maintain some flow and some rhythm.
You don't wanna get in there and just
jerk the hip around like that.
It has to be in the context of creating some flow
and some motion in the golf club.
But, believe me, if you can get this in there,
get a little flow and make some practice swings
where you point that end up a little bit sooner
it is really gonna help you shallow out.
Now, if you're like me,
my patterns are to get the club
a little stuck behind me,
start to get a little too much tilt
and either push the ball to the right
or hit a big hook to the left
if I roll the hands over too much.
It's typically the problem of a
good player or a low handicap type of a player.
And so, for me, what I've gotta feel like when I drill this
is just that this end stays pinched and stays low,
it can turn a little bit, that's fine,
but I wanna feel downward pressure there
and as I feel that downward pressure I can accelerate
my trunkern arms a little bit in to the ball there
and make my shot, lifting it is gonna be my enemy.
So, I'm gonna have a little go here.
Little pump, pump.
(golf club swinging)
And then hit one like that.
That was a good feeling for me.
Now remember, this is a game of club and ball,
it's not a game of hips and ball.
I've spent a lot of my time as a junior golfer trying
to change things in my hip action,
and maybe appropriately so.
But it's so easy to lose focus
of the goal of the game which is
to move the club the correct way
so that you hit the shot that you wanna hit
and just work on your hips too,
independently of that if you like.
Hey listen, you'll see great players
if they're hitting a driver, this is an 8 iron here,
if they're hitting a driver
you'll see that end of that stick point up,
you'll see more tilt, you'll see more of a brush mark.
You look at the very same player later in the round
on a hardpan lie with a 9 iron against the wind,
and you'll see them look a little more crunched
and a little more over the ball there.
More angle of attack onto it to squeeze the ball.
So you've gotta customize the thing,
get it to what you need
and not just with your swing in general
but with the kind of shot you're hitting
and if you pay attention to the club
and what you're tying to do there
this stuff will come to you pretty naturally.
So lets try one little shot,
my tendency is to get too much this way,
so I'm gonna picture the stick as being kinda low.
(golf club swinging)
Didn't really like the way that swing felt,
felt a bit this way,
guess I'll have to get the rod in there and work on it.
Well, I hope this is helpful for you,
hope it clears up some of the mysteries
or so-called mysteries about hip slide and hip turn.
I hope you can make some progress with that drill.
Again, scratchgolfacademy.com is my home website,
we have full courses in every aspect of the game
including one-on-one coaching,
hope you'll consider that.